I'm pretty sure that I dated my last post wrong, my bad. I stopped blogging because I realized how late it was getting. I have been trying to behave and go to bed early so coming back to Ohio isn't a terrible time change adaptation.
Getting back to some of things that i've been up too, I also got to go to some hot springs. This was my first experience ever visiting hot springs. I've been hearing a lot about them and my curiosity level was full so I had to break down and check them out myself. I will usually hear two stories about the hot springs when I ask about them. One is that they are for the truckers, and a bunch of old truckers will go to them and sit in them naked all day. The other story beside the naked truckers is that its a place for hippies to go and bum around and tripp on whatever drugs they had with them for the week. Can you guess who I saw? well, it just so happened to be the hippies, and I was elated that I didnt hike this steep cliff to see a bunch of naked old men. The geology of the hot springs where pretty interesting. the rocks where odd looking and hollow like and the springs where tiny pockets formed into the side of a hill leading to the bottom of the North Umqua River. The higher the spring pocket was the hotter the water was. They where pretty fun, except we went on a warm day so it was tough to stay in them for a while. The hippies who where there are people who look like they came from the country fair I went to a few weeks back. Lots of dreds and things to smoke and drink. Hippies are very generious people and offer their high to you as if you helped pay for it, or even grow it. I am in Oregon. Don't worry folks I'll pass any drug test but the reason why I am bring up the drugs at the hot springs is because I have never seen someone so high in my life. There was this guy who was drinking some kind of a tea who was running around and chanting these crazy songs about people plants and pets. it was pretty entertaining. A while later another guy game to the springs who was a photographer. he had been there the past few days and apparently the guy who was chanting had been on a high for the past 3 days straight. he asked my friend and I if we had some of his tea and be both said no. The photographer who we met then told us that the guys tea had cocaine leaves in it, which is why he has been there for days chanting and running around like bigfoot. oh the things people will do these days...
There was a company picnic a few days back and the theme of the party was pirates. Everyone who went was dressed like A pirate or had somthing related to them. there where competitions and I am proud to say that I won two of them. The compeititons where so appropriate for the setting. we had relay races running trays of water and bed making contests. I won a bed making contest and this baloon popping game that is reallly complicated to explain so I won't get into details on how it worked. I was impressed with the party, we had a live band and steak for dinner!
Work has been pretty routine for the past few weeks. Labor day was intense, we almost tripped out daily sales in one day. Not that its after labor day the Cafe' is kind of like a ghost town. Production is done really early and we are closing at 6pm not instead of 8:30. its crazy how the it was like a light switch went off after labor day. the people went away for the most part and the days keep on getting cooler. Only one more month and there will be snow up here. The Park is gearing up for winterization here in a couple of weeks which is wild!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
September 8
The past couple weeks since my last post has been time well spent, full of adventures and fun. I have fallen in love with this state. The only competition that Ohio has with Oregon is Middle Bass
I have done some crazy things in my life. Some things my parents don't know about and some They would rather not hear about. One day when I was on the phone and mentioned something about cliff jumping and
my mom pleaded for me to not say anymore. Althugh I have kept my cliff jumping to a minimum doen't mean I have not been able to pull off some crazy things.
A few days back I was able to take the Crater Lake boat tour to Wizard Island. Wizard Island is the little island in the Middle of Crater Lake. Its not really little once you get down there, so the day I was able to go on the tour and extensive hiking turned out to be a big day of touring and extensive hiking. The day began with vicky and becky who are both international and Janelle who was my first roommate,hiking down the caldera to the bottom of the lake. After stomping straight down the hill trying not to fall we got to take a hour boat ride to the island. This is what I mean when the day turned out to be BIG adventures. I never knew that it would take an hour to get to Wizard Island, everything looks so close when your looking down into the crater from thousands of feet above. All four of us hauled ass up the summit which is the top of the crater and then wandered down fumerale bay to see some tide pools. These two hikes are not suggested to be done on the same trip because of the extensivness but we where rebels and went for it. I was exhausted when the boat finally came around to pick us up. I am pretty sure that I feel asleep on the boat. The day ened with a jump into the freezing water ( about a 20 ft jump off a ledge) and the climb back up the cleetwood trail. I was exhausted. Cleetwood alone is tiring. there is a running joke that it is one mile down and eleven miels up. But over all it was one of the most beautiful things i've ever had a chance to do. Even though the day consisted of 7 miles hiking up and down elevation it was all worth it.
Another thing that I have managed to pull out of my sleeve was hiking to the top of Mt. Scott. Mt. Scott is the tallest mountain in the entire park. With the help of my roommate chelsey and dax, who works in the cafe' with me,we all successfully made it to the top. The climb up was hefty, there was times where I thought I was going to have to stop and turn around. Climbing up the elevation like that really creeps up on you. There was this whole mental battle thing that was happening as I was trying to get to the top. But I made it, and it was all worth is because the view was amazing and the pictures rock. We started the hike a little later in the afternoon so by the time we got to finishing out drive from mt. scott the sun was setting. This was another cool thing I got to see and I feel so privledged for it. I have seen a lot of sunsets, but not one that was setting over the mountain and turning the mountains a purple color because of the forest fires that are burning the park right now.
its been a while, but yes there has been some crazy lightening storms up here which are awesome but have created forest fires. There are 11 forest fire in the park right now but are all being controlled by the national park service. They are letting the trees burn which create a lot of smoke to help control the parasites that kill off some of the evergreens.
Getting back to the the sun set after climbing Mt. Scott. It was awesome, pictures don't really do much justice for the sunset but the colors where amazing. purples, oranges and reds all in weird shapes .i've never been able to associate what I saw with sunsets after watching this one.
The trip to San Francisco was pretty insane. I didn't expect to get to go since colin decided that coming out here was not going to be a possibility. It was in the plans to go for a day or two but I had to do some modifications to my plans after leaving the mountain since i'll be doing it alone now. Anyways, Anne and I borrowed one someones old ford explore to pack her apartment up in and move her back to S.F. We lefted at about pm and got into Kfalls to pack her car up by 10. we managed to fit a dresser, sterio, tv, a few boxes and a queen size serta mattress all into the back of the poor old explore. we looked like sardines. We lefted K.falls at about 11pm and got to S.F. at 6am. we drove the entire night, I even got to give my dad a wake up call when we where driving through sacramento ( since after all there is a 3 hour difference in ohio). After getting to her parents house we passed out until about 11 am until we where woken up by her little nephews to go swimming. It was nice to have slept in a normal bed and be in a home. We hung out there, i got to meet her llama named tina and jump into the cold pool to wake up. We made a game plan and set out to go down town for the rest of the day. Down town San Francisco it a pretty cool place, however, the golden gate bridge is not gold its a rust orange and its impossible to get as good as pictures as you seen online in person because there is ALWAYS FOG. It was ok though, I still got to walk across the golden gate bidge and eat some clam chowder. After anne and I where tourists around the city we headed back and had dinner with her parents and left san francisco like a bunch of crazies and made it back to the mountain by 6:00 oclock the next morning. So pretty much we drove two nights straight back to back and made it back to the mountain in one piece surviving on red bull.
I have done some crazy things in my life. Some things my parents don't know about and some They would rather not hear about. One day when I was on the phone and mentioned something about cliff jumping and
my mom pleaded for me to not say anymore. Althugh I have kept my cliff jumping to a minimum doen't mean I have not been able to pull off some crazy things.
A few days back I was able to take the Crater Lake boat tour to Wizard Island. Wizard Island is the little island in the Middle of Crater Lake. Its not really little once you get down there, so the day I was able to go on the tour and extensive hiking turned out to be a big day of touring and extensive hiking. The day began with vicky and becky who are both international and Janelle who was my first roommate,hiking down the caldera to the bottom of the lake. After stomping straight down the hill trying not to fall we got to take a hour boat ride to the island. This is what I mean when the day turned out to be BIG adventures. I never knew that it would take an hour to get to Wizard Island, everything looks so close when your looking down into the crater from thousands of feet above. All four of us hauled ass up the summit which is the top of the crater and then wandered down fumerale bay to see some tide pools. These two hikes are not suggested to be done on the same trip because of the extensivness but we where rebels and went for it. I was exhausted when the boat finally came around to pick us up. I am pretty sure that I feel asleep on the boat. The day ened with a jump into the freezing water ( about a 20 ft jump off a ledge) and the climb back up the cleetwood trail. I was exhausted. Cleetwood alone is tiring. there is a running joke that it is one mile down and eleven miels up. But over all it was one of the most beautiful things i've ever had a chance to do. Even though the day consisted of 7 miles hiking up and down elevation it was all worth it.
Another thing that I have managed to pull out of my sleeve was hiking to the top of Mt. Scott. Mt. Scott is the tallest mountain in the entire park. With the help of my roommate chelsey and dax, who works in the cafe' with me,we all successfully made it to the top. The climb up was hefty, there was times where I thought I was going to have to stop and turn around. Climbing up the elevation like that really creeps up on you. There was this whole mental battle thing that was happening as I was trying to get to the top. But I made it, and it was all worth is because the view was amazing and the pictures rock. We started the hike a little later in the afternoon so by the time we got to finishing out drive from mt. scott the sun was setting. This was another cool thing I got to see and I feel so privledged for it. I have seen a lot of sunsets, but not one that was setting over the mountain and turning the mountains a purple color because of the forest fires that are burning the park right now.
its been a while, but yes there has been some crazy lightening storms up here which are awesome but have created forest fires. There are 11 forest fire in the park right now but are all being controlled by the national park service. They are letting the trees burn which create a lot of smoke to help control the parasites that kill off some of the evergreens.
Getting back to the the sun set after climbing Mt. Scott. It was awesome, pictures don't really do much justice for the sunset but the colors where amazing. purples, oranges and reds all in weird shapes .i've never been able to associate what I saw with sunsets after watching this one.
The trip to San Francisco was pretty insane. I didn't expect to get to go since colin decided that coming out here was not going to be a possibility. It was in the plans to go for a day or two but I had to do some modifications to my plans after leaving the mountain since i'll be doing it alone now. Anyways, Anne and I borrowed one someones old ford explore to pack her apartment up in and move her back to S.F. We lefted at about pm and got into Kfalls to pack her car up by 10. we managed to fit a dresser, sterio, tv, a few boxes and a queen size serta mattress all into the back of the poor old explore. we looked like sardines. We lefted K.falls at about 11pm and got to S.F. at 6am. we drove the entire night, I even got to give my dad a wake up call when we where driving through sacramento ( since after all there is a 3 hour difference in ohio). After getting to her parents house we passed out until about 11 am until we where woken up by her little nephews to go swimming. It was nice to have slept in a normal bed and be in a home. We hung out there, i got to meet her llama named tina and jump into the cold pool to wake up. We made a game plan and set out to go down town for the rest of the day. Down town San Francisco it a pretty cool place, however, the golden gate bridge is not gold its a rust orange and its impossible to get as good as pictures as you seen online in person because there is ALWAYS FOG. It was ok though, I still got to walk across the golden gate bidge and eat some clam chowder. After anne and I where tourists around the city we headed back and had dinner with her parents and left san francisco like a bunch of crazies and made it back to the mountain by 6:00 oclock the next morning. So pretty much we drove two nights straight back to back and made it back to the mountain in one piece surviving on red bull.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
August 17
I never have a daily routine. Everyday out here in the Pacific Northwest is not constant and at times unpredictable. The internationals are constantly surprising me. The other day I’m pretty sure I ate dog food, or something close to it. At the Rim gift shop and Café’ where I work everyone gets ten minute breaks throughout their shift. I ran into Ruby, one of the internationals, on break. We all are constantly trying each other’s food since we’re both so foreign to one Another. Anyways, Ruby was eating this, well I don’t know what it was, but I’m pretty sure it was something close to dog food. It was wrapped up like a baby pepperoni stick, but about the size of a pencil. It tasted like air with a hint of salmon, something id imagine dog food tasting like.
Sometimes at work when it is just me closing with one of the internationals I have to fight with them on doing some of the work, they like to keep really busy through out the shift. I always argue with Jennifer that I will do the mopping. Well, after a long day and after arguing that I was going to do the mopping, we where both slap happy and I spilled the entire mop bucket all over the floor. Its still a joke, 4 days later that I am not longer aloud to touch the mop.
My days off turned out to be nothing that I expected. I ended up going to Eugene with my roommate and her boyfriend. It was the first time that I had a chance to go to Eugene and walk around. It is a pretty cool, alternative city. That night I had the opportunity to go to a Scandinavian festival, which was interesting. The second kind of festival I’ve been to out here and I’m happy to say that everyone I saw was fully clothed!
Hans is this crazy old guy who is my dorm coordinator. He really is something else, I can’t even come up with words to describe him. But if you where to meet him and I said he was my dorm coordinator, it would seem that I lived in a looney bin. Anyways, I got a new roommate the other day and she didn’t understand when I asked her to not lock the door because I was going into the shower. Yes, I was that person who got locked out of their room in a towel. I went downstairs to get Hans to let me in and he made me stand downstairs while he finished what he was doing while giving me a lecture on my responsibility.
Other than my quick blog that is all over the charts with updates and stories, I am leaving tomorrow for Cali and I am super excited to get some sun. We’re driving past mt. Shasta and going to a water park in Readding Cal. I am excited but my camera has not yet made it in the mail so I won’t have a camera to use while I am out there, unless I borrow someones~
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
August 10
I'm discovering that I am more likely to write my blog on my days of or days just before my days off. This is likely because there is something actually exciting to write about other than what happens at work. I'm sure that who ever follows my blog really doesn't care to read about my work drama or what our soup of the day was. Anyways, Sunday's are days that I usually ride into town with Anne. Anne is a crazy she works full time on the Mountain and part time at the Klamath Falls airport. She does the 4am to 9am shift 2-3 times a week. I like to ride in with her on Sundays to keep her company. However, this sunday I was not the only passenger for our sunday road trip off the mountain. Ten of us went off the mountain, including two of the internationals who I work with. We all went to a dive bar where one of the guys who went with us could play drums. Also, it was the first time that the internationals had ever been in a bar and an American bar! It was a lot of fun and very entertaining. Tomorrow I'm waking up somewhat early and taking my supervisor to the casino to get propane for his camper than I am going to go to Diamond lake with a crowd and hang out there for the rest of the day. On Friday I am seriously considering climbing Mt. Scott but I am not too sure yet. In other news, I got some bad news this week. Colin is not going to make it out here for my final road trip down into california. I am really bummed out that he won't be making it out here but I understand his reasoning.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
August 4
I am officially connected to the world once again. My computer arrived safely in the mail, and I successfully have gotten internet to work in my dorm. If there is anyone who would like to set up a skype date, let me know!
Things up here on the Crater have been going smoothly. Today was my day off and I took a ride into town . Tomorrow I plan on crossing another one of my hikes off my list and then go to the Umpqua river in the afternoon to go swimming. The scheduled hike is the anne creek hike. This hike takes you down the ravine where I use to go sit and get cell phone service. I'm pretty sure that I posted the picture of what I had to look at to get cell phone service. Its a pretty area but also the area where I saw the bear! I'm not to worried about it because this was when all the snow had not yet melted. Most of all the snow is gone now, so the wildlife has found more freedom in the forests.
In the mean time, back in Cincinnati. Jackie found an apartment for us. I will be officially out of Clifton and I'm super excited about it. We're going to be moving downtown in a cute apartment off Elm. I think the way things are going to work out is that I'll be able to walk to work and travel to school. this works out much better than living in the college town of clifton, and I mean this more ways than one.
COLIN WILL BE HERE SOON. I CAN NOT WAIT.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
July 30
Before I started creating this blog, I didn't check the last time I posted. I know it was a while ago. Things have been so great that it is hard to find time to get to the public computer, since mine crashed, to post on here. Work has been really busy, but busy is good . I get to talk to people from all over the world. I had the chance to use my German knowledge with an old german couple the other day. Like most travelers, they where having difficulty understadning american currency. So I used my german knowledge and talk to the older german couple, saying the total and change back in german. Another thing at work that happened that was both weird and odd was that I saw someone from my Highschool come through our line. Not just NDCL but from my actual graduating class! we both recognized eachother right away and it was just a small world feeling after that.
Im getting more and more hiking in and I love it. I made it a goal to try and do all the park hikes this summer and since i've posted Ive done two more. One of the hikes is called cleetwood. It was one of my most straneous hikes i've ever been on. 1.2 miles down and 1.2 miles up. It was intense and of course I picked a hot day to do it. Cleetwood is one of the better known trails because you have to complete this trail to go on a boat tour around the lake. I havnt gone on a boat tour yet, which I will have to do the trail again because I will be going on a boat tour before the summer comes to an end. The other trail is called sun notch, which is one of the easier ones listed. it is only about 3/4 of a mile and takes you to the top of a peak over the lake facing west for sunsets. It was really pretty.
Since I covered a shift for one of my co-workers I got to have wednesday, thursday and Friday off so I wouldn't go into over time. I was completely fine with this because I worked a ton and I just needed to get off the mountain. Somehow I managed to find a yurt on the coast for thursday night. Yurts are like giant TPs that are in the state parks, usually parks that are off the 101. Yurts are a hot item, I called 7 phone numbers before I could find an available one for Thursday night. Everyone who was planning on coming was feeling the same anticipation that I was wednesday night. Everyone wanted to get off the mountain, we where all ready for our weekend. So even though we didn't have a room or place to crash on wednesday night, we left anyways. We made our way way to Bandon, which is a small port town off the 101, which was also where park was that had our yurt for Thursday night. The drive there was through the Umpqua national forest and it was beautiful. we drove through the base, along the side of a river, of super high cliffs that had lime green moss all over the edges. I've never seen moss so lime green. It looked fake. Also, along the way we drove through a little town called myrtle point, which happend to be having their town fair. my freinds and I decided that this was the perfect place to pull over for dinner. There is nothing better than a fair corn dog for dinner! The fair was tiny, but they had an elephant which was cool! When we finally got into Bandon we found a motel, the shooting star motel to be specific and all 5 of us crashed in a standard double bed exhausted. The next morning I couldn't wait to go to the beach, I woke everyone up, we got breakfast and made this great game plan. We where going to the beach for a few, then go to the sea lions caves, check into the yurt and be back to the beach just in time for low tide. The only thing that happened in this master game plan was that we went to the beach. We got there and decided to stay the entire day. The pacific was pretty cold but with the help of the cooler connie gave me ( THANKS CONNIE), the pacific was managable after a few beers. The five of us had a great time, the yurt was awesome we cooked our dinner over the fire, did some shopping in the old port town and made our way to the sea lion caves on our way back to the Crater. The sea Lion caves where coool, you get into this elevater that takes you 200 feet down into a cave where all the sea lions hang. The drive back continued to be an adventure, as if the coast wasnt one already, we pulled off at some point on the way home and decided to do a river walk, which ended up to be a river swim. It was so nice to float down the river. I'm not really sure where we where, but the river was so clean and so fresh, we delayed our travels home by a good hour and a half.
As for the rest of the week, I have no plans except for my 40 hour work week. I might head into Klamath falls with anne on Sunday and I might hike Annies Creek Trail, but I have no clue. The only other thing that I'd like to see happen is heather have her baby so I get to see pictures! and Skype because I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK. I'm looking forward to skyping with everyone, including fin. This way fin won't have to send me a lock of his hair in the mail.
Im getting more and more hiking in and I love it. I made it a goal to try and do all the park hikes this summer and since i've posted Ive done two more. One of the hikes is called cleetwood. It was one of my most straneous hikes i've ever been on. 1.2 miles down and 1.2 miles up. It was intense and of course I picked a hot day to do it. Cleetwood is one of the better known trails because you have to complete this trail to go on a boat tour around the lake. I havnt gone on a boat tour yet, which I will have to do the trail again because I will be going on a boat tour before the summer comes to an end. The other trail is called sun notch, which is one of the easier ones listed. it is only about 3/4 of a mile and takes you to the top of a peak over the lake facing west for sunsets. It was really pretty.
Since I covered a shift for one of my co-workers I got to have wednesday, thursday and Friday off so I wouldn't go into over time. I was completely fine with this because I worked a ton and I just needed to get off the mountain. Somehow I managed to find a yurt on the coast for thursday night. Yurts are like giant TPs that are in the state parks, usually parks that are off the 101. Yurts are a hot item, I called 7 phone numbers before I could find an available one for Thursday night. Everyone who was planning on coming was feeling the same anticipation that I was wednesday night. Everyone wanted to get off the mountain, we where all ready for our weekend. So even though we didn't have a room or place to crash on wednesday night, we left anyways. We made our way way to Bandon, which is a small port town off the 101, which was also where park was that had our yurt for Thursday night. The drive there was through the Umpqua national forest and it was beautiful. we drove through the base, along the side of a river, of super high cliffs that had lime green moss all over the edges. I've never seen moss so lime green. It looked fake. Also, along the way we drove through a little town called myrtle point, which happend to be having their town fair. my freinds and I decided that this was the perfect place to pull over for dinner. There is nothing better than a fair corn dog for dinner! The fair was tiny, but they had an elephant which was cool! When we finally got into Bandon we found a motel, the shooting star motel to be specific and all 5 of us crashed in a standard double bed exhausted. The next morning I couldn't wait to go to the beach, I woke everyone up, we got breakfast and made this great game plan. We where going to the beach for a few, then go to the sea lions caves, check into the yurt and be back to the beach just in time for low tide. The only thing that happened in this master game plan was that we went to the beach. We got there and decided to stay the entire day. The pacific was pretty cold but with the help of the cooler connie gave me ( THANKS CONNIE), the pacific was managable after a few beers. The five of us had a great time, the yurt was awesome we cooked our dinner over the fire, did some shopping in the old port town and made our way to the sea lion caves on our way back to the Crater. The sea Lion caves where coool, you get into this elevater that takes you 200 feet down into a cave where all the sea lions hang. The drive back continued to be an adventure, as if the coast wasnt one already, we pulled off at some point on the way home and decided to do a river walk, which ended up to be a river swim. It was so nice to float down the river. I'm not really sure where we where, but the river was so clean and so fresh, we delayed our travels home by a good hour and a half.
As for the rest of the week, I have no plans except for my 40 hour work week. I might head into Klamath falls with anne on Sunday and I might hike Annies Creek Trail, but I have no clue. The only other thing that I'd like to see happen is heather have her baby so I get to see pictures! and Skype because I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK. I'm looking forward to skyping with everyone, including fin. This way fin won't have to send me a lock of his hair in the mail.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
July 12
I havn't posted in a few days, and I swear it is not because I am lazy. Its because I've been busy!I hiked garfield on Thursday (almost a week ago now). It was beautiful. Garfield is a trail that leads off the lodge up a Mountain. I can't belive that I can say that I hiked well past 8000 and saw the views that I did.The lake reflects the sky, and it is so blue it is unexplainable. My pictures are awesome, I'm looking forward to being able to post some someday, if I ever get a computer to myself. Friday turned into one giant adventure. Anne and I traveled to the Oregon Country Trail. We left at 7am on Friday morning and drove three hours to Eugene, Oregon. The drive takes you along a river, through evergreen covered hills and lime green lichen covered cliffs. So pretty much, everything out here is green or blue. While in Eugene I made a few stops and gazed at the city. It was an actual city, somthing I have not seen for a while! The fair was in veneta, 15 miles outside of Eugene. The rest of the day was spent people watching, grazing around the trails, looking at peoples booths in something like 280 acres. There was live music, drummers, yoga areas, food and tons and tons of hand made art to sift through. oh and not to mention a lot of naked people. Anne and I ended up staying until night, where everyone left the forest and sat in a field. we followed not really knowning what was going on, and found that there was flame throwing show. That was pretty exciting to watch and be apart of. It was a long day, actually a long two days. I was exhausted. We finally got back to the Dorm at about 3AM. On Saturday, I worked my usual shift and then took some of the internationals to Wal Mart. They where so excited to be riding in a Jeep. It was funny how many pictures I had to take with them beacuse I was taking them in a Jeep. The drive was funny, they wanted to listen to country music. sadly the jeep does not have radio options when the headlights are on. One of the internationals starting to since Happy Birthday instead. I laughed the entire car ride. Between teaching them how to say holy cow, listening to country music and having them look for deer it was really entertaining. Even while at wal Mart things continued to get interesting, somehow there was a stray dog that go loose in wal mart. So there I was watching the walmart emoployees chase a dog around while i tried to explain was an avocado was to internationals. My rest of the week was pretty normal for the most part. But its my weekend again. the only thing i have planned in harry potter. <3
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